The Power of Imagination

As I wrote in my previous post, I want to share a selection of books that have, in the words of Ursula Le Guin, been my “guide to the country we’re visiting.” Here is another:

Over 15 years ago, I picked up The Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were by Michael Page & Robert Ingpen. I was transported into another world from the moment I took a peek inside the front cover and read:

“There is a world just around the corner of your mind, where reality is an intruder and dreams come true…… you may escape into it at will. You need no secret password, no magic wand or Aladdin’s lamp; only your own imagination and curiosity…… about things that never were.”

The book is about the Cosmos, the Ground and the Underground, of Wonderland and Invention, of water, sky and air and Things of the Night.

To this day, I still love picking up this special book, sitting down in my favorite chair with my special fluffy blanket just around dusk and begin reading. All I need to bring with me is my own imagination! And I have found that there is spiritual power in activating our imagination. If we can open ourselves and allow our minds to by-pass our intellect, we can discover ways of seeing the world that was invisible to us only moments before. This book gave me a doorway into my own imagination — I was not a child, but I was young in many ways, and this book found me at a formative time.